Officers in riot gear moved into a park late in the day where protesters were attempting to establish an encampment, hauling off demonstrators just hours after a standoff at the Capitol steps degenerated into a fight that ended in a cloud of Mace and pepper spray.

"No court has jurisdiction over Guantánamo," said [Morris] Davis. "Some senior civilian Bush adminstration officials chose Guantánamo to interrogate detainees because they thought it's a law-free zone where we can unlawfully… handle a very small number of cases.

"We have turned our backs on the law and created what we believed was a place outside the law's reach."

He added that America was "great at preaching to others, but not so good at practising what we preach.

"There is a point when enough is enough, and you have to look at yourself in the mirror. Torture has no place in American courts."